Bridesmaid no more – Jeremy Chan breaks runner-up curse at APT Incheon

“People were telling me, ‘You’re cursed,’" Chan said after his win. “I was zero for five heads-up coming into this one, and some of my friends were saying I’ve got to get this one off my back. This one was the one that started it – and I got the curse lifted.”

Does this sound familiar?

In lifting the curse and the prestigious APT Lion trophy, Chan earned $169,650 along with a $10K seat into the $5M guaranteed APT Championship this November in Taipei.

To get it done, he had to play what may have been the toughest heads-up match of his streak against three-time APT champion Michel Molenaar.

Michel Molenaar and Jeremy Je Min Chan battle heads up

The duo battled for well over two hours, trading the lead several times after they began their heads-up match virtually even.

Eventually, an interesting coincidence brought things to an end.

With blinds of 100K/200K and Chan holding the lead, he defended his big blind with against Molenaar’s raise with .

The flop came , and Chan called a bet of 400K from Molenaar. The turn brought the , giving Molenaar a pair of jacks and Chan the nut flush draw.

Tell us if you’ve heard this one before. The action, though, played out a little differently from the now-infamous hand from the WSOP Main Event as Chan checked his draw and then called a bet of 1.2M.

The river completed Chan’s flush with the , while Molenaar still had his pair of jacks.

Chan checked to Molenaar, who moved in for his last 4M chips. Chan happily called, and the curse was lifted.

Chan celebrates a long-awaited win.

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The road to the title

Play resumed Monday with 14 players remaining, but after a little over two hours of play, that field had been trimmed to the final table of nine, with Molenaar rising to the chip lead with 61 big blinds. It didn’t take long to reach the money from there, with the bubble bursting on just the second hand of the final table.

Sutthi Denvitaya was the unfortunate bubble boy, exiting in a curiously played hand. The Thai player, who entered the day with just over $22K in Hendon Mob-reported earnings, opened to five big blinds from a 14-big-blind stack with . He was min-clicked by Molenaar, who held , and called to see a flop, having already committed more than two-thirds of his stack.

After whiffing the flop, Denvitaya called off the rest and couldn’t find an ace, ending his day unceremoniously.

Sutthi Deventiya (right) saw his day unfortunately end on the bubble.

Play was notably snug after the bubble burst, with the APT commentary team invoking Teddy KGB from Rounders as the entire table was ‘hanging around, hanging around’ for that first $6K pay jump. It finally came 38 hands later with Yuya Arito falling to Chan after he jammed from the small blind and couldn’t hold up against Chan’s call from the big blind with . Chan made two pair and the floodgates opened after Arito’s eighth-place elimination.

Molenaar and Chan cull the field

Just four hands later, it was Molenaar’s turn to score another knockout. Start-of-day leader Reoma Ogawa was ousted in seventh place when his roughly nine-big-blind three-bet shove was called by Molenaar’s . The Dutchman found another ace on the turn to crack Ogawa’s kings and send him to the rail.

Only 20 minutes or so later, it was Chan’s turn again as he flopped two pair from the big blind with against Nevan Chang’s from the button; Chan check-jammed for 1.4M (14 bb) effective. Chang called off and couldn’t improve to survive.

Chan then eliminated Martin Sedlak soon after, sending him out in fifth place with queens against Sedlak’s ace-nine, before the most dramatic hand of the final table to that point set up the heads-up match between Chan and Molenaar.

Molenaar and Chan scored every knockout once the money bubble burst.

Four becomes two

Chan had built a sizeable lead at this point, but a dream spot would give Molenaar more than a fighting chance for the title.

From the cutoff, Chin Wei Fan moved all-in for his last 12 big blinds with , and Peng Chen then re-jammed for 23 big blinds from the button with . Molenaar peeked down at in the big blind, covering both players. He called, flopped another king, and the double elimination moved Molenaar virtually even with Chan.

The huge pot was a fitting exclamation mark to a wild stretch of play. While it took 38 hands to go from eight players to seven, it took only 16 more to reach heads-up play, setting up a memorable battle and a fitting conclusion.